Charlot Zahra
In the past five years, Enemalta Corporation has received almost 1,200 complaints over power surges – which every year damage dozens of electrical appliances in households. Of these complaints, slightly less than half have been accepted.
During the past five years, Enemalta paid a total of €316,163 in compensation for damages to appliances and other electrical-powered apparata caused by power surges.
The average amount of compensation paid by Enemalta since November 2003 per successful complainant was therefore €547.94.
Out of 1,181 complaints lodged with Enemalta since 2004, 577 were accepted while 604 were rejected, figures supplied by Enemalta Corporation to MaltaToday showed.
In 2004, out of 197 complaints received by Enemalta, 104 were accepted, while the rest were rejected.
In 2005, out of 318 complaints, 141 were accepted while 176 were rejected. In 2006, out of 192 complaints received, 102 were accepted while 90 were rejected. And in 2007, out of 183 complaints, 63 were accepted while 120 were rejected.
This year, out of 292 complaints received by Enemalta until 26 November, 167 were accepted while 125 were rejected.
However, the figures for this year could vary as there was a number of pending applications that were still being processed, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Communications, told MaltaToday.
Between November 2007 and 26 November this year, Enemalta paid out a total of €45,638 for 126 accepted claims, an average of €362.21 per claim (although the figures for 2008 can be modified as a number of claims were still pending to date).
Enemalta Corporation adopts “a standard procedure” to deal with such complaints.
“First of all note that Enemalta investigates all power surges that it becomes aware of, irrespective of customer complaints,” a ministry spokesperson told MaltaToday.
All customer complaints about power surges are usually directed to Enemalta’s Customer Care Office that guides consumers about the matter. “Complaints are investigated by Enemalta at a legal and technical level and if Enemata is liable to pay for damages, it asks customers to submit a claim form that is supported by technician reports and fiscal invoices or receipts.”
“Generally damaged equipment or appliances are repaired but these are replaced when damaged beyond repair,” he added.
As to the criteria which Enemalta on which the Corporation decided to offer compensation to customers as regarding power surges, the spokesperson said: “The Enemalta Act broadly establishes where Enemalta is liable to pay damages and where Enemalta is not, and Enemalta has established guidelines based on the Act.
“Where Enemalta is liable to pay damages, financial compensation is computed on a set of guidelines that consider original cost of equipment, age of equipment, current market value of equipment and repair costs,” he explained.
If a customer was not satisfied with the level of compensation that was offered by Enemalta, this would be re-assessed by the Corporation. “However if a customer remains unsatisfied, the customer has redress to the relevant regulatory body,” the spokesperson said.
However, Enemalta customers who spoke to MaltaToday complained that the procedure that the Corporation adopts to investigate the claims and accept responsibility were too lengthy, often going into months before settlement is made.
Alfred Martin, the owner of a beauty shop in St Paul’s Bay, said he has been waiting for compensation from Enemalta for the past seven months after a power surge struck his shop in Main Street back in May.
“I had been reporting the fault to Enemalta for 15 days. At first Enemalta engineers said that the fault was from my side, but later they discovered that a cable feeding electricity into my shop had become damaged, and was causing the surge,” an exasperated Martin told MaltaToday.
As a result of the power surge, various appliances related to his profession were damaged, and he had to fork out €3,000 to repair his equipment.
It was only after he threatened that he was going to speak to this newspaper that Enemalta’s Financial Controller informed him on Friday that his claim was going to be given priority.
He spoke to MaltaToday after chasing Enemalta for various months endlessly to obtain his compensation.
It was only at around October that Enemalta sent Martin the Claim Form, which indicated that Enemalta was accepting liability for his case, which he sent back some three weeks later.
“Claims made by self-employed people should be given priority since we need to earn our living out of the equipment that we use. We do not have a wage waiting for us at the end of the month,” he told MaltaToday.
“If we are not compensated on time, we have to extend our overdrafts and pay more interest as a result of that,” Martin lamented. “We are already feeling the pinch as a result of the economic recession.”
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